Bojoko co-founder and former CEO Joonas Karhu has launched a new law firm focused on the Finnish gambling sector named Huhtikuu.
Huhtikuu, which means April in Finnish, was unveiled by Karhu earlier this week. The firm is based out of Finland’s capital city Helsinki.
Karhu recently secured an LLB and LLM from the University of Helsinki prior to launching the firm.
Karhu co-founded the affiliate brand Bojoko in 2017 and stepped up to become CEO in 2021.
The business was eventually sold to fellow affiliate North Star Network, where Karhu remained onboard as head of casino.
He joined Immense Group, the parent company of Videoslots, earlier this year as managing director for Finland, before departing to launch Huhtikuu.
Speaking to EGR, Karhu said the plan to launch the firm had been “brewing for quite a while” and that the impending arrival of Finland’s commercial market was another key driver.
Finland will ditch its monopoly model with Veikkaus next summer and introduce a multi-licence system. More than 60 licence applications have already been submitted.
H2 Gambling Capital expects online GGR in Finland to reach €2.2bn in 2031. The intelligence firm places Veikkaus as the market leader in the Nordic nation.
Karhu said: “There aren’t many law firms that focus on gambling law in Finland. I’m not a first mover but having that entrepreneurial spirit from the Bojoko days, I was clear I wanted to try something on my own.”
Karhu is currently the sole partner at Huhtikuu but is seeking to hire talent as the firm picks up clients.
He plans to solely focus on the Finnish market, which will also introduce B2B licences in 2028.
One of the biggest sticking points of the new multi-licence framework is a ban on affiliates, which stakeholders and local experts have criticised and argued could leave the door open for the black market to succeed.
On the regulations, Karhu added: “I think it’s very positive that [the Finnish market] got this regulation. It’s very much a 1.0 version. It’s nowhere near ready. There are lot of questions that are open to interpretation.
“The affiliate prohibition is going to hurt the channelisation rate. That is perhaps the biggest [contributing] factor to the channelisation rate.”
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The post Former Bojoko CEO unveils Finnish gambling law firm first appeared on EGR Intel.
Joonas Karhu talks to EGR about the thinking behind launching Huhtikuu and his concerns over the affiliate ban baked into new regulations
The post Former Bojoko CEO unveils Finnish gambling law firm first appeared on EGR Intel.